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The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s All Hands on Deck meeting will be hosted virtually from Juneau, Nov. 9-11.

By Alaska Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer

e recognize that responsible seafood sourcing has both environmental and social implications, and it’s important that we nd transparency in our seafood supply chain.

What a time it’s been, these past 20 months. We have seen every sector of society turned upside down and inside out. We have adapted and overcome many of these challenges, and still look forward to the future as optimistically as possible. Part of that optimism is demonstrated by getting back to business together and looking ahead to the future.

Every year the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute holds its annual All Hands on Deck meeting, a three-daylong public conference bringing together all ASMI sta , contractors and seafood experts to present and discuss current marketing e orts, as well as strategies and challenges facing the industry, with the ASMI Board of Directors and the ASMI species and operational committees. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

As a new ex-o cio member of the board, I am excited to participate in my rst All Hands on Deck meeting. Typically held in Anchorage (with the ability for the public to call in), it has been an excellent opportunity for people from across the globe and the seafood sector to shake hands face to face and collaboratively get down to work. Like last year’s successful event, this year’s event will also be fully virtual.

All Hands has always been an excellent opportunity for anyone from the eet, processing sector, or other interested groups to be involved in ASMI’s approach to its mission of increasing the positive awareness of the Alaska Seafood brand and raising the value of Alaska seafood.

Established via Alaska state statute in 1981, ASMI has spent the last four decades bringing together knowledge and expertise across all aspects of this quintessential Alaskan industry to navigate changes at home and abroad and ensure this resource retains its competitive advantage in global markets.

Soon after ASMI began, farmed salmon was gaining market share at an alarming rate, driving values down for Alaska’s shermen. Through ASMI’s work and partnership with industry e orts, the quality of Alaska’s worldclass seafood shined through, building a brand that consumers love and trust.

ASMI was an early champion of Alaska’s legendary responsible and science-based sheries management systems, recognizing and deploying this message and trend long before sustainability was a common market term. This has positioned Alaska as a world leader in sustainable seafood.

Today, ASMI continues to look ahead at ways to support and champion the Alaska seafood industry’s e orts to navigate the challenges ahead, whether that’s pivoting to digital marketing support during the global pandemic, building new markets for species that have seen their traditional markets shift as a result of trade barriers, or working with industry to develop new products and tastes for species the world hasn’t discovered yet.

Representing all major species of commercially harvested seafood in Alaska, ASMI ensures there is always a trusted, quiet power behind the word “Alaska” around the world.

The most important parts of All Hands on Deck will be the contributions from these meetings, providing ASMI program sta with strategic direction, constructive feedback on program tactics, provide market and species insight, and represent the best interest of the Alaska seafood industry as a whole.

The 2021 All Hands on Deck event will be hosted online Tuesday, Nov. 9 – Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021.

There will be challenges to holding such a robust virtual event, and ASMI is working hard to create a smooth, e cient platform to share valuable resources and support productive discussion.

The CAP is made up of 10 industry leaders in the foodservice, distribution, consumer packaged goods, and retail

sectors, from key geographic markets, including the United States, United Kingdom, China and Japan. They will address consumer trends and how the Alaska seafood industry can best position itself to respond to the impacts of the pandemic and continue to drive consumption.

The species committees take a deeper dive into discussions on the market challenges and opportunities and needs of specifi c species groups.

The species committees then share their updates with the operational committees to help in the annual planning in support of ASMI’s program areas, including International Marketing, Domestic Marketing, Communications and Consumer PR and Seafood Technical.

All Hands on Deck brings together a unique cross-section of industry participants, including fi shermen, processors, seafood trade members, government representatives and other groups from across Alaska and the world.

There is critical work to be done Nov. 9-11 in steering our eff orts to support the industry moving forward. So much has changed with the Legislature and federal funding, it is more important than ever for all ASMI stakeholders to pull up a seat at the virtual table and engage with their unique ideas and perspectives.

While we look forward to the opportunity to meet in person in the future, we welcome your participation, which is made safer, and in some ways more accessible, by hosting the event online. More information can be found at www. alaskaseafood.org/all-hands-on-deck-2021.

Kevin Meyer is Alaska’s 14th lieutenant governor.

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The MLA has three overarching concerns with the nal rule. First, the Lobster Management Area 1 Seasonal Restricted Area is much larger than it needs to be to reduce risk from the Maine lobster shery. Second, NMFS has made drastic, lastminute changes to the gear marking requirements for Maine, which will likely require lobstermen to purchase a second set of buoy lines to sh legally marked gear. Third, the nal rule lacks the exibility for lobstermen to innovate and propose equally protective yet less costly approaches.

The MLA wrote to NMFS and met with the White House O ce of Management and Budget’s O ce of Information and Regulatory A airs in late July to urge the federal government to tailor the size and duration of the Area 1 closure, streamline the approval process for conservation equivalencies, and not make last-minute changes to Maine’s gear marking system. The MLA’s concerns were echoed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources and Maine’s Congressional delegation. MLA is disappointed none of these reasonable requests were accommodated.

“We are extremely frustrated by last-minute changes to gear marking without any input from Maine lobstermen, and that the closure is much larger than it needs to be to protect right whales. According to the state, reducing the size of the closure in December and January would have a negligible impact on conservation bene t to right whales,” noted McCarron.

The MLA is committed to supporting both the continued viability of the Maine lobster shery and the recovery of the North Atlantic right whale through management measures that cost-e ectively address documented risks based on the best available science. Maine lobstermen are world leaders in conservation and stewardship. They take pride in their longstanding sustainable shing practices, which include more than two decades of implementation of successful measures to protect whales. Since NMFS formed the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team in 1997, the MLA has been fully engaged in work to reduce the potential risks to right whales from entanglement in shing gear.

For more information about the whale rules, visit the NMFS ALWTRP web page.

Maine Lobstermen’s Association Kennebunk, Maine

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